BERRY, WILLIAM,
an ingenious artist, was born about the year 1730. He was bred to the
business of a seal engraver, having served his apprenticeship with a Mr.
Bolton of Edinburgh. On commencing business on his own account, he soon
became distinguished for the superiority of his workmanship, particularly
for the elegance of his designs, and the clearness and sharpness of his mode
of cutting coats of arms and other devices. For many years he did not
attempt any thing higher in his art than the common routine of the trade at
the time. His first essay in the style of the antique intaglios was a head
of Sir Isaac Newton, which he executed with astonishing precision and
delicacy. Nevertheless, the greater part of his life was occupied in cutting
armorial bearings, as he found a greater demand in this branch of the art
than for fine heads, and there were very few that could afford to pay the
price. During the course of his life, he did not execute more than a dozen
heads in all, any one of which was sufficient to insure him lasting fame.
Among these were Thomson the poet, Mary queen of Scots, Oliver Cromwell,
Julius Caesar, a young Hercules, and Hamilton of Bangour. Of these, only two
were copies from the antique, and they were executed in the finest style of
the art. Wherever these heads were known, they were admired as superior to
anything produced in modern times. Piccler, a famous artist in the same line
at Rome, who had had more practice, was the only person that could be
compared to him, but each, in the true spirit of genius, gave the palm of
superiority to the other. Berry possessed not merely the art of imitating
busts or figures set before him, but he could execute with fidelity a figure
in relieve, copied from a drawing or painting upon a flat surface; as was
proved with the head he executed of Hamilton of Bangour, who had been dead
for some years, and which he finished from an imperfect sketch, being all
the likeness that remained fo him. Besides these heads he executed some
full-length figures both of men and other animals, in a style of superior
elegance. But the interests of his family made him pursue rather the more
lucrative employment of cutting heraldic seals, which may be said to have
been his constant employment for forty years. In this department he was,
without dispute, the first artist of his time. The following anecdote is
told of his excellence in this branch of art: Henry, duke of Buccleuch, on
succeeding to his estate, was desirous of having a seal cut with his arms,
&c., properly blazoned upon it. But as there were no less than thirty-two
compartments in the shield, which was of necessity confined to a very small
space, so as to leave room for the supporters, and other ornaments, within
the compass of a seal of an ordinary size, he found it a matter of great
difficulty to get it executed. Though a native of Scotland himself, his
grace never expected to find a man of first rate eminence in Edinburgh; but
applied to the most celebrated seal engravers in London and Paris, all of
whom declined it, as a thing exceeding their power to execute. At this the
duke was highly disappointed; and having expressed to a gentleman, who was
on a visit to him, the vexation he felt on this occasion, his visitor asked
if he had applied to Mr. Berry. “No,” said his grace, “I did not think I
should find any one in Edinburgh who could execute a task that exceeded the
powers of the first artists in London and Paris.” The gentleman advised his
grace to take it to Berry, who, he would undertake, could execute it. The
duke accordingly went to Edinburgh with his visitor next morning and called
upon Mr. Berry, whom he found, as usual, sitting at his wheel. Without
introducing the duke, or saying anything particular to Berry, the gentleman
showed him an impression of a seal that the duchess dowager had got cut many
years before by a Jew in London, who was dead, and which had been shown to
the others as a pattern, asking him if he could cut a seal the same as that.
After examining it a little, Berry answered readily that he could. The duke,
pleased and astonished at the same time, exclaimed, “Will you, indeed!”
Berry, who thought this implied a doubt of his abilities, was a little
piqued at it; and turning round to the duke, whom he had never seen before,
said, “Yes, Sir, if I do not make a better seal than this, I shall take no
payment for it.” His grace, highly pleased, left the pattern with him, and
went away. The pattern seal contained indeed the various devices on the 32
compartments, distinctly enough to be seen, but none of the colours were
expressed. Berry, in due time, finished the seal, on which the figures were
not only done with superior elegance, but the colours on every part so
distinctly marked, that a painter could delineate the whole, or a herald
blazon it, with the most perfect accuracy. For this extraordinary exertion
of talent he charged no more than thirty-two guineas, though the pattern
seal had cost seventy-five! Notwithstanding his great talents, his
unequalled assiduity, and the strict economy observed in his family, his
circumstances were far from affluent. He was highly respected on account of
the integrity of his character, and his strict principles of honour. He
married a daughter of Mr. Andrew Anderson of Dressalrig, by whom he had a
numerous family. He died July 3, 1783, in the 53d year of his age.

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